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I’ve been an avid listener and advocate of the progressive side of metal for a long time now. While you’ll see in the previous review of Dirge that I am cool being served another plate of my favorite stuff, there’s also something to be said for going in a different direction. It’s kind of a thing to realize how long the reach of Isis and Neurosis have been. I say this because what really makes Odyssey stand out is how their take on progressive is really fresh and new for being so old school. Odyssey is playing progressive music, these are long songs that are pretty heavy duty composition-wise. What you’re not hearing though is the sort of prog-0f-2010 thing were a band would really quickly play some jazz scales and go back to what they were doing before that. Odyssey are playing what we used to call Heavy Metal. There is riffage, there is shredding, it all has a really distinct old school feel to it, but at the same time sounds really fresh to my ears, since everyone has been going and doing the Isis thing.

This is also top-quality musicianship, these three really know how to play. There is always a danger with dudes like this that they’ll get bored and wander off into some weird, self-indulgent territory; getting too jammy for their own good. This never happens on An Abstract Existence. This whole thing is super tight. Six songs of super tight, super enjoyable progressive metal. I am encouraging you, the reader, to check this out.